01 Mar Chilli Beef Jerky Extra Hot review
Hello All,
I am back after taking time away from reviewing chilli products and boy have I been dropped straight back into the deep end with his Extra Hot Chilli Beef Jerky varieties.
Jerky remains one of my favourite snack foods – but these extreme heat varieties have severely tested my love affair with both jerky and chilli.
Whilst we have come a long way in Australia with the process of making jerky however still more work is done to seriously compete with the globe in this category.
Our team was tasked with tasting 6 different jerkies that had been entered into the Extra Hot category. I knew what my body was in for.
It would be unfair of me to dissect each brand rather I’m going to give my humble opinion on what is key to ensuring a world class quality jerky is produced.
Taste – jerky’s should be spiced and seasoned correctly with even coverage across the meat – dry spices can sometimes fall off the meat and can be at the bottom of the bag.
Grain – choose your cut of beef wisely and make sure its fresh. Sirloin tip, flank steak and eye fillet are good cuts but feel free to experiment – beef mince works a treat as its very easy to chew.
Portion Size – Critical and one of my biggest bugbears when tasting jerky – portion sizes on this ranged from small bite or strip size – which is good – to full size cuts bigger than my hand. Jerky works much better as a snack food if the portions are bite or strip size.
Texture – Probably the most critical aspect – this can make or break your jerky sales and finding the right balance can be tricky. For example I prefer my jerky to be chewy or tender. The harder drier varieties of jerky tend to be like chewing through tree bark and I’m getting older. Unless I get metal teeth like Jaws from the James Bond movies I got no chance of chewing through the hard and dry jerky. Suit the texture to the target client I guess but understand that if its softer or tender it may widen the net so to speak.
These extreme hot jerky’s really packed a punch with the level of heat – some resorting our more casual chilli eaters to tears with the level of burn(and the inevitable ring of fire on the way out haha). So if you are an extreme chilli eater or think you are then these are all worth of try but be warned – the pain is real.
Votes were cast and the result of our tasting were as follows
1st Awesome Beef Jerky Nitro XXX
2nd Silvers Beef Jerky Snake Venom
3rd Kev’s Jerky Mega Hot 2
4th Bad Gaz’s Snack Foods Hell’s Fury
5th Kev’s Jerky Mega Hot
6th Bullseye Feral Meats Dragons Breath Chilli
Review by Michael Elias
